A few weeks ago I found myself standing on the main stage at the Mind Body Spirit Festival in Melbourne.

If you had told me six years ago that I would be doing that, I probably would have laughed. More than likely, I would have found a reason why it wasn't possible.

At the time, I was running a small men's circle from a garage while studying engineering at university. I didn't have a plan. I didn't know where it was leading. I wasn't trying to become a speaker.

Truthfully, I wasn't trying to become much of anything.

I was simply following something.

Looking back now, that has been the common thread through much of my life. Not a strategy. Not a five-year plan. Not certainty.

A thread.

A feeling that there was something here worth moving towards, even when I couldn't explain why.

This episode began because so many people in Melbourne asked me the same question:

"How did you get here?"

And the more I sat with that question, the more I realised there wasn't a simple answer.

There were men's circles. There were mentors. There were retreats. There were failed attempts, uncomfortable conversations, shaky Instagram lives, moments of deep self-doubt, and more times than I can count where I questioned whether I had anything worth sharing at all.

There were also moments where life seemed to open a door and ask me to take a step.

Not ten steps.

Just one.

This conversation is a reflection on that journey. Not because I believe I have it figured out, but because I know there are people listening who are standing at the edge of something themselves.

Something calling them forward.

Something asking to be lived.

My experience has been that we rarely get the whole map. We are given a thread, a direction, a next step. And if we are willing to trust it, life has a way of revealing what comes after.

This episode is about following that thread.

00:00 Welcome to The Wyrd Way

01:00 Returning to the podcast after a break

01:37 Speaking at Mind Body Spirit Festival Melbourne

02:00 The RAW Men's Retreat and creating transformational spaces

03:27 Why people kept asking: "How did you get here?"

04:03 From fearing the stage to loving it

05:00 Growth through following aliveness and discomfort

06:54 Reflecting on six years of mentoring and transformation

07:24 The first men's circle in a university garage

09:00 Beginning before knowing what you're doing

09:40 Engineering, anxiety, depression, and the search for healing

10:18 Breathwork, meditation, plant medicine, and self-discovery

12:22 Becoming a coach and facing imposter syndrome

13:24 Starting imperfectly and learning in public

15:17 The terrifying first Instagram Live

16:04 Learning to love the parts of yourself that feel afraid

16:55 Becoming versus performing

17:33 Ego, collapse, and coming back into alignment

19:14 Authenticity and owning what you're feeling

20:20 Looking for the next step instead of the whole path

21:25 Stewarding a vision without controlling it

22:01 Treating your creations as living entities

23:01 Business, relationships, and being in conversation with life

24:42 The danger of trying to think your way through everything

25:30 Being in conversation with the universe

26:11 Following intuition, mentors, and unexpected opportunities

27:27 Vision quests, relationships, and life's turning points

28:20 Following the thread of your own becoming

29:02 Leadership as going first

30:15 Six years later: arriving on the main stage

31:04 The role fear has played in every stage of growth

31:41 Greatness, service, and sharing your gifts

32:24 Mentorship, RAW Retreat, and next opportunities

34:01 Closing reflections

RAW: Men's Primal Embodiment Retreat

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Dean Bentley is a speaker, mentor and host of The Wyrd Way podcast. Often called a Viking Priest, he guides deep transformational work through initiation, men’s work and embodied practice. His work helps people face what is real, reclaim fragmented parts of themselves, and live with grounded purpose, truth and creative power.